by his own land. Textiles, metal work, arms
and tools, musical instruments, watches, carriages, cutlery, books, and
furniture--a bewildering array of all things useful and ornamental--made
Americans realize as never before the wealth, intelligence, and
enterprise of their native country and the proud station she had taken
among the nations of earth.

Machinery Hall came next to the Main Building in size. Of plain
architecture, built of wood, with iron ties, 1,402 feet by 360, it
covered, with an annex, about thirteen acres. Here, with infinite
clatter and roar, thousands of iron slaves worked their master's will.
Three-fourths of the space was taken up with American machines. Visitors
from the foremost foreign nations marvelled at the ingenuity of the
Yankee mind here displayed. Great Britain led the foreign nations in the
size and number of articles exhibited. Canada, France, Russia, Sweden,
Brazil, and other countries sent ingenious or powerful machines.

But as a Titan, towering above all these and all others, stood the great
Corliss engine, built by George H. Corliss, of Providence, R. I., one of
the most remarkable mechanicians and inventors of the century. A modern
Samson, dumb as well as blind, its massive limbs of shining steel moved
with voiceless grace and utmost apparent ease, driving the miles of
shafting and the thousands of connected machines. The cylinders were
forty inches in diameter; the piston stroke, ten feet. The great
walking-beams, nine feet wide in the centre, weighed eleven tons each.
The massive fly-wheel, thirty feet in diameter, and weighing fifty-six
tons, made thirty-six revolutions a minute. The whole engine, with the
strength of 1,400 horses, weighed 700 tons.

Agricultural Hall, built of wood and glass in the form of a nave with
three transepts, covered ten acres. The display it contained of
agricultural products and implements was the largest ever made. Here the
United States stood forth far in advance of all sister nations.
Specimens of the rich and deep prairie soil excited the wonder and envy
of tillers of impoverished European lands. The great West, with its
monster steam-ploughs and threshing machines, placed before the eye the
farming methods of a race of giants. The choice and delicate fruits of
sunny lands mingled with the hardy cereals of Canada and Russia.

Memorial Hall, a beautiful permanent building of granite, erected by
Pennsylvania and Philadelphia at a cost of $1,50